September_1970 — Page 12

View from Orchard Road (north-east)

HIGHLY placed in Singapore's com- petitive hotel-design league is the im- pressive new S$15 million Ming Court Hotel, whose golden roofs and em- phatic bands of grey mosaics make it a much admired landmark in a state where the announcement of a presti- gious new hotel project has become almost an everyday occurrence.

The achievement of such standing is doubly impressive from an architec- tural viewpoint when it is considered that the whole project was completely revised long after construction was under way.

In its original form the scheme was conceived as a mixed development integrating varied uses for a hotel shopping complex and office accom- modation.

Work on the superstructure com- menced in 1966, but with the difficul- ties experienced during Confrontation by Indonesia, building operations were temporarily slowed to almost a stand- still. Left with uncertainties when con- ditions improved, the complex under- went a total re-examination in the course of which it was reckoned that the hotel aspect was insufficiently pro- vided for and the demand for com- mercial accommodation doubtful.

As a result the project was revised and re-disigned for a luxury tourist hotel, deleting in the process the office accommodation and reducing the shopping complex to the minimum required to serve the hotel guests.

The podium was re-designed as a swimming pool garden deck and two floors were added to the tower slab at the expense of a sub-tower earlier in tended for offices.

The site

The site is at the corner of Orchard Road and Tanglin Road, with ingress and egress from this frontage. It is also partially bounded by Cuscaden Road on the south-east side, providing access to an adjoining lot for additional spill- over parking.

The original site consisted of two lots which were amalgamated to form an area of 79,750 sq. ft., divided by a 10ft. drain reserve along its common boundary. This drainage reserve was subsequently increased to 40ft. by the authorities and presented the most serious problem in the planning and structural design of the project.

There was also reserves for road widening, reducing the site to a nett area of 57,650 sq. ft. and, after the

allowance of set-back building-lines all round the site, the ground coverage of the building was only some 39,000 sq. ft.

The total built-up floor area is 256,000 sq. ft. on an allowable plot ratio of 3.

Adjoining property acquired for car parking covered 18,000 sq. ft., from which a further 1,600 sq. ft. was surrendered to the Gevernment for road widening.

The site is generally level but re- quired an average 4ft. fill to raise it 2ft. above the highest known flood level.

The most problematical limitation of the site was the 40ft, drain reserve which inhibited every stage of plan- ning, development and construction of the project. Protracted negotiations with the authorities to bridge this drainage reserve delayed progress for nearly as long as two years.

To see this project in its proper perspective therefore, it should be appreciated that at the time of its in- ception in 1963, it was one of the earlier attempts at an integrated com- plex as such and, again in its time, a relatively large undertaking by the private sector. Understandably then

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Far East BUILDER, September 1970